Why Doesn’t Australia Have Its Own Version of South Park?

Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, the first episode of South Park, aired in 1997. Looking back, it’s incredible it ever made it to air. Putting aside the language and themes, it was so … basic. The animation, the storytelling, the character development, the humour – they were all completely amateurish.

And yet, it had something.

Comedy Central’s Doug Herzog must have recognised that something when he green-lit the show, created by two then-unknown animators who met at the University of Colorado. But even Herzog couldn't have guessed how far Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park might go. Now in its 21st season, it’s arguably the sharpest, most fearless satire on TV, commenting on issues ranging from bullying to racism to gentrification to transgender rights. It’s also lost none of its original spirit. It’s still crude. It’s still immature. It’s still controversial. It remains all the things the fans loved it for back in the ‘90s.

In recent years, Australia has produced three of its own fledgling South Park s: The Big Lez Show, Damo and Darren and The Legend of Borry. (And potentially, a fourth, in the forthcoming Doomlands.) As a bunch they’re crude and immature, but they also have that raw something. All we need is another Doug Herzog to see it.

Apart from web series The Mike Nolan Show, picked up by Comedy Central Australia in 2016, none of these shows have been signed to a TV network. They exist on YouTube alone – which, at this point, might be the only place they could exist.

Of the group, 26-year-old Michael Cusack, the creator of Damo and Darren, has the most experience pitching to networks. He’s worked with Foxtel; has a three-part mini-series called Koala Man on ABC iView; and is currently in talks with a US network for another project.

“Doing stuff online is the most freeing thing ever. I know it now more than ever, after doing work for TV,” he says. “Not only do you get notes suggested changes back, but you’re very self-conscious when you’re pitching stuff to TV, because you’re aware of the audience and you’re aware that it’s going to be on TV and they’re probably going to censor stuff.

“People want you, but they don’t really want you. I’ve had TV networks say they want another YOLO another Cusack cartoon, but then they critique it the resulting cartoon and they say, ‘Well we can’t do that, we can’t do this.’ The whole reason YOLO got popular is because it was vulgar and it did things you probably wouldn’t be able to get away with on TV.”

Example? A guy climbing inside a girl’s rectum to chase down and sodomise her poo.